So you would feel better about it if shadow lords was not available without buying all of the season 3 characters, despite that not changing anything about your current situation with the game and only making the mode available to less players?
Well, yes. In a cathartic sort of way. But the best situation would have been a reduced S3 price.
@Ravan86, since your thesis is that the developers are stupid and donāt know how to properly use the money MS has given them for development, can you provide me with some information that builds a business plan for your missing stages? Specifically, since youāve made it clear that you think it was a terrible decision to make a gorgeous stage for Arbiter and then a low quality bonus stage for Gargos, Iād like you to give me some data showing how much the inclusion of a Gargos stage would have generated in additional revenue. Then by way of comparison, I want you to show me your data on how many new players and how much additional revenue the inclusion of Arbiter brought in. Youāre very positive that your view in this is correct so surely you arenāt just basing this on your own, emotional opinion. You must have some knowledge that the rest of us donāt, especially given how certain you are that you could do it better than the development team. So please share this with us.
You also say that they have not provided a pathway to allow us to pay for this. While itās true that there isnāt a mechanism on the Xbox store, I have a feeling that if you were to offer them the $500,000 USD that building a stage requires then they would be happy to discuss it with you.
You see, I have a problem with your reasoning on this, because I think it isnāt any good. The developers may be many things but Iām certain they can count. And I can also count and I can say with certainty that what is perceived on these forums as a huge demand for stages is really just a dozen people posting hundreds of times that they want stages. I know and so do you that each of those guys chipping in even $50 isnāt going to produce enough capital to fund even a single, astral plane style stage. The math doesnāt work.
I donāt have good data on the revenue generated by Arbiter and his stage (you can be damn sure Ms does). But I have encountered many people who have told me āI became interested in the game because Iām a Halo fan and I came to check out Arbiter then really liked the game.ā I havenāt heard even a single person, ever, even you or the other people clamoring for more stages say āI was going to buy KI, but when I found out there were only 20 stages and that Gargos and Mira donāt have one I thought - Hell No! And I didnāt buy it.ā
Just food for thought. No one is against more stages. Iād love to see more stages. But it takes a lot of very dubious steps to get from there to āif only the developers werenāt so stupid we would have more stages.ā
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Ouch man, real ouch. 
Iām mostly just messingā¦still kinda stings though.
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I also want to point out that Arbiter got a stage because 343 was more than happy to give the devs all the assets they needed for Arbiter and his stage. While that might not be the entire picture, itās kind of a no-brainer that Arbiter would get a stage when the devs are handed a lot of the work they would have needed to do on a stage.
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Sorry man. Iām not trying to be mean. Iād love more stages too. So would @TempusChaoti and the dev team according to their posts. But people need to be realistic about it.
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Unfortunately, the layman doesnāt know excrement about game design or business management. They just know what they think they want and, apparently, thatās all that matters.
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Look, I can kind of understand this thought but Shadow Lords, though available to everyone, was still an endeavor by the dev staff for Season 3 that required money. Therefore, it needed to be recouped with sales.
There were a lot of things done within the scope of Season 3 that positively benefitted everyone whether they picked up Season 3 or not. This isnāt terribly different from previous seasons. Shadow Lab, for instance, was a Season 2 project that likely used Season 2 budget. It, however, was not restricted to people who purchased Season 2 because it was overall game content.
Maybe Iām being narrow-minded about this, but I viewed the bundles as a character thing. Season X combo breaker/ultra edition bundles were me buying characters to the tune of $5 a pop (that makes the Ultra price and if you get combo breaker and less cosmetics for them, you pay less at $2.50). Given the cost of individual characters, this is how I approached it and I think it has made me much less cynical regarding what the devs are putting out this way.
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Your reasoning is correct, but I look at KI, not all that is behind. And I see many imbalances, Arbiter and Raam should have identical treatment, Halo and Gears of War are 2 xbox stars. Rash is part of an even older and important universe.
Imbalance, difficult choices, little money. I do not find a solution that makes sense.
Raam has a missing stage, so itās not like you say, āThis is not a missing stage because never existed.ā Imbalance.
Raam, itās proof that KI is currently handicapped
I know that English is not your primary language so Iām not going to quote you - but I would paraphrase your response as āI donāt worry about things like how to actually make the game, I just worry about the part that affects me. And I want more stages.ā
Which I think is great. If you want to make that feedback clear itās fine. But whatās not fine is to make claims about how the game should be developed when you neither know nor care about any of those details.
You seem to be hung up on whether the stages are āmissing.ā I donāt think youāre helping yourself here. You want stages in the game that donāt exist now. Thatās all that matters. The fact that some characters have an associated stage and others donāt is a reason that you want the stages but it doesnāt change the fact that they currently donāt exist. I donāt think itās correct to characterize these as āmissing.ā Thatās like if I walked up to a police officer and said my son is āmissing.ā When he gets out a pen to take notes I tell him āmy wife and I only have daughters but I always wanted a son.ā But in the end itās pedantic. You want them to make more stages.
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@Ravan86, You keep assuming things about the dev team, like their intelligence, their willingness to let us pay for something, how they spend money and what not, and you keep throwing the word āstupidā out there, yet these quotes side by side should show you that you donāt seem to have the full picture on whatās going on with this game.
If a stage costs 500K to make, no community fund is going to get that to happen. Yes, we got over 100K with the Shago fund, but to ask for FIVE TIMES that amount just to make one stage?
Iām not trying to gang up on you. Youāve been around a long time and I know youāre just passionate about wanting stages and I also really enjoy your art work, but maybe itās possible youāre letting your emotions get the best of you?
The more you show your frustration with the developers and make assumptions about them, the less likely they are to listen to you. Thatās not a fact, and Iām certainly not speaking for them, but it does seem like a logical response if I were them.
Keep pushing your agenda all you want, Iām honestly right there with ya in wanting more stages, including retro stages, but thereās a good, constructive way to go about that, and thereās a way that might make them less inclined to listen. Two cents from a neutral observer? Youāre kinda pushing that line a bit.
^ This.
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One stage costs 500.000$? So they 've spend 10.000.000 only for stages. If two characters cost same to five stages that means one character cost same to two and a half stages, about 1.250.000$. 29 characters cost 36.250.000$. So about 45.000.000$ only for characters and stagesā¦ I donāt think so. kilgore sold about 10.000 pieces,like 50.000$ profit. So they must be 1.200.000$ down only for kilgore. I wonder how IG guys are not in jail yet.
It is damn hard to make these speeches using the translator. I do not know how some words are read by you.
Kilgore is a remix character - purposely made for lower cost than an average character.
$500k is a made up number. You think itās $100k? $50k? Based on what, wishful thinking?
If you want to pretend that 20 guys chipping in $5 a piece is going to make a stage but MS and IG are too stupid and mean to do it then knock yourself out.
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depends on who you ask. Me personally Iām happy with most of the Ultimates we got, weāre getting them and it feels like the devs are listening to me. Itās just that people who are getting mad or are not satisfied are highly vocal.
I agree with the missting stage statement.
I know thatās just a guess but why would a stage cost that much?
I just saw Andy post that number and assumed it was a guess on his part, thatās why I said āif.ā I honestly have no idea how much a stage would cost to make. How much do you think it should cost?
Thatās a good question. Iād say that it probably costs about 1 million dollars for just 1 stage.
Based on shadow jagoās fund. the fund was 100k for him to get new animations and to be a complete character overall. because animating and framing and making him a real character in the story are the most difficult parts, i would say that a new character costs about 200k. because it would be strange that IG would make a 100k fund for a character who costs, lets say, 500k. it is like, come on guys we have 400k we only miss 100k.
So if a new character costs about 200k, a new stage would be around 80k.
At first, there are not only 20 guys. i think all the guys who play the game will buy any new stuff. Chipping 5$ is how this game works. if you think a character costs 1M, there must be around 200k players only to make it even,without profit. Only the killers in the game must be around 5k to 10k. all the active players must be around 20k to 30k, i guess. Lets make it 50k. so we are 150k players short at best, to equal the spending. they shouldnāt make any new content at all in that case.
if a character costs 200k we need 40k people to make it even,and we make money from the skins, it think this is how it works.
So if a stage costs about 80k, a 5 stages pack would cost 400k. it is about 10$ for 40k players. 10$ would be a good price for a 5 stages pack and they could keep making money from other stuff, like costumes and colors which are much easier to make.
i donāt know why they are not doing something like that, there are a lot of reasons for doing and not doing that. like policy of the company, effort, time, will, plan. i donāt know. i am only asking them to do that, because i like stages, i like all the characters have their stage and KI has a good legacy on beautiful stages so i would like to see more.